I was checking my various mantis incubating containers and was at first excited! This was my first time incubating ooths, and my first ootheca to show signs of life.
I saw a little black creature inside the container around the lid. I thought perhaps a small spider got into the container, as I thought it was too small to be a mantis, and the ooth has only been warming up for 23 days (not long enough for mantis to hatch).
I looked inside and saw a few more in the bottom. I got out my camera to use the macro function to clearly see what was in the container. It turned out not to be a spider or a mantis, but the dreaded parasitic wasp (Podagrion sp). After making absolutely sure, I put the whole container in my freezer at 0 Fahrenheit for over three hours.
After removing the container from the freezer I removed the ooth and everything else to get all the frozen wasps out. Turns out there were ten wasps that hatched, and at least another three hatching from the ooth when I froze it. Oddly, the wasps hatch from the backside of the ooth.
I decided to get some photos of the event with my new setup (and did some focus stacking, and even found a script to automate it some for CHDK). About a hour of warming up some of the wasps showed signs of life, moving their legs and antenna. I prompted use my razor blade and cut their heads off.
I have put them in a air-tight container for now to try and get some better/more photos later; however, once I done with that I will ensure all of them are exterminated - nothing worse than this creature.
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I saw a little black creature inside the container around the lid. I thought perhaps a small spider got into the container, as I thought it was too small to be a mantis, and the ooth has only been warming up for 23 days (not long enough for mantis to hatch).
I looked inside and saw a few more in the bottom. I got out my camera to use the macro function to clearly see what was in the container. It turned out not to be a spider or a mantis, but the dreaded parasitic wasp (Podagrion sp). After making absolutely sure, I put the whole container in my freezer at 0 Fahrenheit for over three hours.
After removing the container from the freezer I removed the ooth and everything else to get all the frozen wasps out. Turns out there were ten wasps that hatched, and at least another three hatching from the ooth when I froze it. Oddly, the wasps hatch from the backside of the ooth.
I decided to get some photos of the event with my new setup (and did some focus stacking, and even found a script to automate it some for CHDK). About a hour of warming up some of the wasps showed signs of life, moving their legs and antenna. I prompted use my razor blade and cut their heads off.
I have put them in a air-tight container for now to try and get some better/more photos later; however, once I done with that I will ensure all of them are exterminated - nothing worse than this creature.
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